


I just came to say hello

by fuckup



Series: The Sleeping Sanguinary AU [1]
Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Adopted Siblings, Dimensional Travel, F/M, Jace is a Fray, M/M, Magnus is a girl in the au universe, Mistaken Identity, Sort Of, alternative universe, canon pairings - Freeform, just au pairings also, magnus approves, reference to au jonathan morgernstern being incesty at au clary, reference to minor character death, typical incest-but-not-really-because-this-is-TMI confusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-01-26 06:33:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12551312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuckup/pseuds/fuckup
Summary: Why this version of Clary has decided that any version of Alec is the type of person to want totalkabout things, he doesn't know. The only reasoning he's got is that this Clary is just as fearless as the one he knows from home, with the same misguided need to make sure things between them are 'good.'AKA the one where two universes (somehow) collide, which basically means that an AU Alec gets increasingly irritated about what this version of his boyfriend is even DOING while an AU Simon finally gets to see the Suicide Squad of his dreams.





	1. AU Alec

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from 'Hello' by Martin Solveig & Dragonette.

** AU ALEC **

In this universe they fall into, Alec has a Parabatai. This is what stuns him into silence as the others bicker about what they can do to fix this. Not even the warm-eyed familiarity that this other Alec has with this very male version of Magna manages it (admittedly, it comes close). The Rune is carved into his other self’s skin like it’s natural to be there. Normal. Someone chose this other Alec in a profound way no one ever has with Alec himself. 

He can't take his eyes off it, that Rune. It’s only inevitable that eventually the other Alec would notice, and his eyes would flick to the corresponding spot on Alec’s own and his mouth would drop open and say, “Where’s your Parabatai Rune?”

Silence crashes down on them like a wave, and with it goes all the theories and mock posturing that was being thrown back and forth between Izzy, her equivalent and their version of Magna Bane.

Next to him, Alec senses Isabelle stiffen. If she’d notice it on the other Alec before, he doesn’t know, but she’s noticing it now, and she’s not happy. “My brother doesn’t have a Parabatai.”

There’s a literal gasp from the other group: Alex thinks it might it might be Magna’s male equivalent. He doesn’t look to check. He can’t take his eyes off his counterpart, this other Alec, who looks past alarmed, like his knees are going to buckle at any moment now. Alec knows the feeling.

“You don’t know Jace?” Izzy’s voice is so solidity her, even raw and wounded like this, that Alec doesn’t realize right away that it’s not his own sister who has spoken.

It still gives him this lump in his throat, a dizzying fizz of his heartbeat that makes him want to reach for his bow and arrow. He tempers himself. The step forward he takes is involuntarily, but the bite in his voice isn’t. “What do you know about Jace?”

His other self and Izzy’s trade rapid fire looks; Bane looks almost disturbed, although for what reason Alec doesn’t know. He isn’t used to this version of Bane, who is—attractive, in his own way. It’s him that breaks this new crystalline silence, voice odd and far, far too understanding. “Jace is Alexander’s Parabatai here.”

The bottom drops out of Alec’s stomach; Izzy makes a sound he’s never heard from her before, a hiss through her teeth. Alec takes an uneven step backwards, staring and not seeing anything but starbursts of white light on his vision. Him and Jace. Parabatai? 

“Why?” He chokes it out. Even reminding himself that this is a different universe, that despite them overlapping like this, what they’ve done won’t effect his Jace or him. But none of that can undo a lifetime oflearning that one lesson over and over: the indisputable fact that _eros_ is a fate worse than death for Parabatai.

None of them answer him. From the stunned look on the face of his other self—and the deeply complicated one on Bane’s—Alec has some idea that what he’s saying is as unbelievable to them as what he’s hearing is to him. 

“I’m flawless. Who wouldn’t want to be my Parabatai?” Jace’s voice, like his sudden appearance, is a rush of hot caramel all over his skin. Alec has to dig the crescents of his nails into his skin so he doesn’t recoil from this other version of Jace, golden and swaggering and looking at him with an cool curiosity that Alec is sure means that he himself isn’t real to this Jace. “Aside from those who are understandably madly enamoured with me and want me for other reasons, of course.”

They might be saying things, the rest of them. His Izzy, or the other Alec. Bane. Alec only has eyes and ears for this Jace in front of him. He wears gear with an effortless that suggests a life-time of training in it. The differences in this universes are not limited to Magna being male instead of female, then. He is not the Jace he knows, could never be, not even without the Parabatai Rune on his arm, chief of all reasons being because Alec wouldn’t want him to be. It’s focusing on the differences that gives Alec strength, a rush of it that reminds him of his own Jace’s arm slung around casually over his shoulder, lips on Alec’s own cheek, the scent of his saffron cologne threading through the smell of funnel cakes and hot garbage. 

He breaks a stare with this other Jace, and looks to Izzy, finding comfort in the careful way she’s erased the strongest of sympathy from her face. “Don’t care, Romeo.” She says, and flips her hair over her shoulder and Alec is grateful, so instantly grateful, that she is going to pretend a lack of closeness with any Jace rather than admit who he is to Alec. “I have a date at nine, so I need to be back in my _own_ universe by ten to finish getting ready.”

———————————

In the scheme of the crazy landscape of their lives, he and Izzy aren’t alone in this other universe for long. Less than a day. Long enough for them to meet Clary-And-Simon (the more things change, the more they stay the same). Long enough for this other Clary to feel the need to come up to Alec and outright ask him why it is both he and Izzy look at them so _strange_ when she sits herself down on Jace's lap and laughs when he trails his fingers through her hair.

Why this version of Clary has decided that any version of Alec is the type of person to want to _talk_ about things, he doesn't know. The only reasoning he's got is that this Clary is just as fearless as the one he knows from home, with the same misguided need to make sure things between them are 'good.' "Are we not friends in your universe?" 

This is so painfully, deeply, astronomically, off the mark of what's _strange_ that Alec has to lace his fingers together to keep them from getting his cell out of his pocket and showing her—physically _showing_ her—what he's unsure if he should even tell her. What happens in one universe doesn't effect the other (except for the part that it _does_ ) and the bomb she's asking him to drop on her is twice the size of the 'you're parabatai here' that Magnus had. 

But this is Clary, who seems remarkably similar to the one he knows, who won't take 'no' for an answer, not when it involves her own life. Alec is no Magna, no Magnus. He doesn't have the tact or the softness of features to do anything but fall back to his customary bluntness: "You and Jace are brother and sister in my universe." 

Of all the reactions he would've expected from Clary, _laughter_ was never one of them. "We had that problem here, too. We figured it out. Did your Clary and Jace not?"

Alec realises his mouth has dropped open. He keeps blinking, multiple times, and has to tap his own chin back up with his fingers. Politeness makes him sure he's meant to arrange his facial features into something less than total disgust and disbelief, but every split-second he considers that gets swept about by the knowledge that she and _Jace_ are _together_ even though they’re siblings here. "You figured it out. You just—" He splutters, actually shakes his head and backs away from her, looking at her with no small amount of horror. "What kind of universe _is_ this?"

The look on Clary's face is—it's something that Alec can't even begin to dissect. Not even before Jace appears by her side, eyes like jewels, clearly unhappy at his _sister_ being spoken to like that.

“No.” Alec can’t even choose just one thing he’s saying no to. Why should he? It’s everything. “ _No._ ”

He strides away from the library, fast, fast as he can; he knows he’s quicker than Clary, and never as quick as Jace. Even in his own universe, Jace can out-pace him.

“Alec!” 

He wants to turn around. He wants to give in to that sliver of _something_ in this Jace's voice that actually echoes his own, who is disinterested in his sister's love life to the point that Alec learned about greeting cards at Duane Reade to buy birthday cards for Clary's latest. 

He doesn't turn around. It doesn't make any difference.

Jace's hand is on his shoulder, gripping Alec with a desperation that makes his Adam's Apple bob against his throat. He can believe they're Parabatai in this universe. He can even believe the other Alec would forgive incest, for the sake of Jace's heart and happiness. "Why are you talking to Clary like that?" 

Alec his eyes open (when had they closed?) and sees his other self lurking in the curve of the next doorway, watching them both. His eyes are an electric shade of blue that are almost disturbing. Alec wonders how either Jace or Magnus (there has to be something between them in this universe, it makes too much sense for it to be anything else) can bear to look at either one of them. "That's the way I talk to anyone who's dating their own brother." He says, yanking himself out of Jace's grip.

(When will he learn it's not Jace's hands that are the real danger?)

"So this is nothing to do with how you've not realized you don't want me in your universe?" Jace's voice is casual. Too casual. It's that tone that keys Alec in to the idea that Jace means this to land in a way in a way it just doesn't. It's the expectation that he's _meant_ to get angry, the surety that Jace knows this would wound an Alec similar to his own, that makes Alec _pissed_. It's a singularly unique position Alec finds himself in, being able to feel anger flare in his chest and watch it crystallize as ice in his own slitted eyes.

"What did you say to him, Jace?" The other Alec demands, stepping out of the shadows and towards them both. It's been hours, and Alec has talked to his counterpart probably less than he has anyone else here. It still feels right to have this other Alec at his shoulder. Alec's always felt most comfortable not feeling pressured to talk, it must just be doubly true when it comes to himself.

There's a shift of the light in Jace's eyes, a flicker of guilt that transforms into cocksure certainty almost as soon as it appears. If he hadn't known they were Parabatai, Alec would've taken it to mean that Jace hadn't realized his own Alec was there. But they are, so Alec can only assume it means that Jace had forgotten, or didn't think his Alec would come against him. "He's not you. If he was—"

Alec doesn't want to hear it. He leaves them wrapped up in arguing with each other in low voices.

———————————

Alec is eating Korean food with other Simon and both versions of his sister in the Sanctuary, researching ways to get them back home, when One Direction starts to sing: 'Let's have another toast to the girl almighty, let's pray we stay young, stay made out of lightning....'

"Is anyone else hearing that?" Simon's been spilling out even more nonsense than normal the last half hour. At first, Alec thought it was just that this universe had decided to prove him wrong, and provide him with a version of Simon Lewis weirder than the one he's been dealt. Then, common sense kicked in. Of course it was being around not just one but _two_ versions of Isabelle. "Tell me I'm not getting audio hallucinations of Harry Styles. At the very least, I'd hope to warrant a Niall Horan or a Louis Tomlinson, which is... probably not a name I should know."

'Am I the only, only believer? There's something happening here, there's something happening here, the only, only believer, there's something happening here...'

Alec lets his chopsticks clatter into his Kimichi and stares at his sister, who has her ringing cell in her hand and isn't answering it. It should be impossible. It's definitely improbable. 

"Iz." He says, impatient with her need to wait for the lyric that goes 'down on my knees for you' before answering the call, even with the circumstances they're in.

She slides him a look. Maybe she notices the way his fingers are grasping for his own (silent) cell, because she picks up the call early. "You're late, Lewis." 

Alec knows his sister. Even if they were Parabatai, Alec doesn't think that he could know her better. With one Simon on the phone, and another gaping at her, she has to modulate her facial expression into coolness, not just her words and the tone she speaks them in. “Both of us.” A flick of her hair. “At the Institute with ourselves.” He sees her turn her face to hide the twitch of a smile at whatever Simon had said in response, and he sees the other Isabelle frowning at the way she plays one of her rings between her fingers as she listens to Simon. It must be as odd for Izzy, seeing her own distraction tactics from the outside. 

"Both of them?" A beat. Another. Izzy nods at Alec, who feels tension leave his shoulders like running water. Their version of Simon isn't the only one here from their universe. His Jace is with him.

He's standing up to go outside and make a call of his own when Izzy holds an arm up to wave him down. "Their Portal came in near a Pixie infestation, so they had to deal with that before they come over. They broke Fray's cell." _Which is why you've not heard from him_ doesn't need to be said, but Alec still experiences a faint sense of relief anyway. His Jace is fast on his way to becoming a great Shadowhunter; his Jace has also long been quicker to reach for Alec than Simon has for Izzy. 

"Why?" Izzy's attention is back to the phone now, that single word filled with enough dubiousness to make Alec proud; he'd taught her that. The dramatics of the sigh is all Izzy. "Fine." She rings off, and crooks her finger at the other Simon for him to give her a sip of his Sujeonggwa. Simon doesn't even to realize he's passing it over to her, but from the determined look of disinterest on the other Izzy's face, Alec is sure she does. "Lewis saw a billboard for a DC movie we don't have in our universe, so he and Clary are going to watch it."

"You were actually talking to me just then?" The other Simon says to Isabelle, breaking the longest streak of silence Alec has ever seen from him in either universe.

"Shocking even you've not got an alternative self running around." Jace's voice is quicksilver, the look on his face less good-humoured than Alec would expect when directed at his best friend. Unlike before, Alec's not surprised by this Jace appearing so smoothly and silently; he's been keeping a watch for it, although the appraising look his own Izzy shoots him signals that she hadn't been. The other Izzy doesn't even stop checking her lipstick in a pocket mirror.

Simon looks more annoyed than seemed warranted. "How much would you want to take me with you? An alternative universe with different DCIC to explore and no wise-cracking blond egomaniacs sounds awesome."

Alec startles when he realises that Simon is talking to _him._ "Jace isn't an egomaniac."

"He's a little of an egomaniac." Both Izzy's chip in, their voices overlapping each other. They take notice and give each other identical curved smiles.

"I prefer egotistical." Jace drawls, seeming entirely unruffled at everything going on around him. "It encompasses my appropriately high opinion of myself, as well as my well-founded belief my problems are more important than anyone else's."

"I thought you said Jace wasn't around in your universe?" This other Simon is asking, looking from Alec to his own Izzy, and then back to the Izzy of this universe. "Didn't somebody say that?"

"I said Jace wasn't Alec's Parabatai." His Izzy crosses and uncrosses her legs; the other Simon's eyes follow the movement, and Alec scowls at him.

"Isn't that the same thing? Aren't you two—" Simon looks from Alec to this other Jace, crossing his fingers in what's meant to indicate closeness.

Against all reason and logic, Alec feels a flush creeping up his cheeks. He waits for this universe's Jace to snark his way through a reply (that's Jace in any universe), but when he shifts his eyes to look over at him, the other Jace's shoulder is moving in a careless shrug.

Silence surrounds them all like a fog. A quick look at Izzy reveals she's not going to pitch in this time. It's up to Alec. He coughs and crosses his arm across his chest. "We're close. We're just not Parabatai."

It's quiet for long enough that Alec thinks he might just get away with it, when Simon (of course it's Simon), has to keep on, "Because... one of the reasons our universes diverged is you realized Planet-Sized Ego over there wasn't worth putting a Rune on it?" 

Alec is across the Sanctuary and slamming this other Simon up against the back wall before two different Isabelles are on him, one of them reaching for him and the other yelling, "The Mark of Cain, Alec!"

How had he missed that Simon still the Mark of Cain in this Universe? _'They're not best friends here, either.'_ He'd known that on one level, as he'd refused to believe it on another. Alec drops Simon from his hold, as much out of embarrassment as because the muscles in his back are lighting up with pain in a literal white-flash of vengeance. He'd not meant to genuinely hurt Simon (hadn’t meant to hurt Simon _at all_ , but suggesting Jace didn’t deserve the Parabatai Rune had got to him). It must only be a bruise he’s left on the other boy. _'Sevenfold.'_ He thinks through a wave of dizziness. It could’ve been worse. Much worse. 

Obviously, that’s when the demon attacks.


	2. AU Jace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I like him for other Alec.” Isabelle says, apropos of nothing. “His eyeliner game is on point, and he’s not dating his sister.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS for brief (although important) references to AU! Jonathan doing as Canon! Jonathan/Sebastian did and trying to assault Clary.
> 
> Oh, and when Jace refers to 'Ris', he's referring to AU Clary/his sister, which is short for Clarissa.

** AU JACE **

He didn’t get a chance to Rune up properly before the Portal swept them away. That wasn’t much of a problem when faced with a nest of Pixies, but dashing off alone through an alternative New York has made Clary decide it could be. Fine with him. Jace would be inked with Runes on every inch of his skin, 24/7, if he had it way. She has him sit on a bench in Central Park while she applies all the Runes either of them think are relevant. Neither of them care much about doing this in public. This is still New York, and weird rules; Clary’s already turned down one request to tattoo a Rune around someone’s neck.

“When else are we going to be able to see a GOOD version of Suicide Squad, Frays? Enchantress and Rick Flag could actually be the emotional pinnacle of the movie they’re meant to be, with this cast.” Lewis looks like he’s about to start reading out reviews from his phone, so Jace does what comes naturally—swipes it from him and dials Alec’s number from memory. When it skips to voicemail after only two rings, he holds the phone out so Lewis can see.

“I’d read into that.” Jace says casually, and flips the phone back to Simon. “Alec’s asked me to put his cell to charge when he was bleeding internally rather than let it drop below 60%.” Normally, talking about Alec puts him in a good mood. Right now it has his foot bouncing and his head turning to see if Ris’s finished yet; she hasn’t, and smacks the nape of his neck to make him stay still. 

Lewis looks slightly wounded. Unlike Jace, winning over Lightwoods is not his natural forté. “I thought we were getting along! I bought him a churro.”

“What are you doing buying my boyfriend churros?”

Jace gets to watch Lewis shut his mouth, and feel Ris pause in the inscribing she’s doing on his skin. For a breath, all three of them go against their natures and are _still._

Because it’s his sister and their best friend, Clary’s stele starts moving at the precise second Lewis shakes his head and keeps talking. “Nope, nope. Not used to that. Jace Fray, with a boyfriend. A _steady_ boyfriend.” He repeats it like it’s a marvel, and not the natural, inevitable consequence of Jace meeting Alec. 

“He doesn’t mind you calling him that?” Clary asks, and there’s no hesitance in her voice, only the gentle kind of firmness that reminds Jace of their Mom. He tries to make the way he drops his head down seem natural, and not like he’s wondering if their Mom is even is _his_ Mom here. If she’s not, and alive because of it. There’s only one person left from his old life who can successfully pretend Jocelyn stealing him from Valentine wasn’t more trouble than it’s worth, and she’s standing right next to him.

“Why would he?” Jace says it with the casual coolness that only works because it’s not accompanied by something so obvious as a shrug or a stretch. “I’m a catch.”

Not even Simon points out that the rampant homophobia among Shadowhunters—like Alec’s parents—is reason enough and plenty. Though Ris does continue to apply his Runes in what has to be the slowest she ever has, and point out, “You could check in with him on my cell and come see the movie with us.”

Jace doesn’t laugh, but it’s a near thing. Sure, they have Izzy’s reassurance that they’re both fine, and she knows Alec in ways that Jace himself doesn’t. But it goes both ways. Alec will want to be with Jace right now, just like Jace wants nothing more than to be by his side. It’s been like that since Jace went after the man who’d murdered his birth parents, with a stolen sword and grief that raged through his blood like ocean tides. Alec had been the one to drag him back from that cliff edge, calm and unafraid and in sync with Jace in a way not even Ris or Simon are. As soon as Jace had understood that he could have a Parabatai, he’d wanted Alec for his; Izzy had been the one to make him understand all that Parabatai really was before he’d committed the sin that would’ve been asking Alec.

So no, Jace doesn’t laugh. What he does is give Clary something just as absurd to work with. “You could talk Lewis into doing the movie after we meet up with Alec.”

“Could I?” Clary asks wryly, and takes her stele away from his skin. Jace jumps up as soon as she does, already pulling his leather hoodie back on. “I left the Glamour Rune for you to do yourself.” She slips her phone into his pocket, and flips his hood up over his head. “Text when you’re with Alec and Iz, J.”

Jace can’t say she’s being overprotective ( _definitely not to her face_ ). Not since Valentine. Not since Jonathan and what he tried to do to her. The three of them do the fistbump-salute-handshake that they devised when they were little, and then Jace shoots off.

———————————

Since turning up on a stolen Mundane motorbike would (probably) make Alec frown, the options Jace is left with are: running the whole way, or taking the subway. It’s a toss up which would be quicker.

But he has always wanted to climb on top of one of the subway cars and ride it with the wind searing into his skin. 

He forgets to jot a Glamour Rune on until he’s already on the roof, but so what? That’s some other Jace’s problem.

———————————

Jace has no reason to think that the this version of the New York Institute won’t recognize him as Nephilim and let him in. He pulls the cord to make the doorbell toll anyway, twice in quick succession—it’s become a sort of signal between him and Alec, although if pressed, Jace could define it’s meaning as being no greater than something to share with Alec. He slips inside while the bells are still echoing throughout the Institute, right into the surprise-delight-problem that is the crash-grunt-hiss of battle.

“Adriel, Artiya’il.” Snick, snick. One bright-hot Seraph blade, two bright-hot Seraph blades. Jace launches himself on to the back scales of the Ignesc demon tightening its tentacles around Izzy, and thrusts both blades in its eyes. Black ichor spurts out from both sockets, slicking over his hands, and he falls into a roll as the demon disintegrates underneath him. 

Flash of Iz’s electrum whip coiling across the stone to yank a demon from its hooves, whizz of an arrow shooting past his ear into a demon behind him, the white light of the Mark of Cain blasting something into shreds. Jace side-steps around himself a breath before he sends a high front snap kick at the throat of the demon spitting venom at his boyfriend. With the reassuring press of Alec’s back against his own, Jace gets to work.

———————————

“I definitely remember something about there being no demons allowed in the Shadowhunter clubhouse.” Jace drawls, once the demons have been ass-kicked back to the void. It’s a little too Lewis of him, but with another version of himself circling, Jace wants to get in there with a dig fast. “Did this universe not spring for that feature?”

The look on Alec’s face is exasperated, irritated, worried and—bemused. _’One of these is not like the other.’_ Jace scrapes Artiya’il against brick to get the ichor off, mourning the loss of Adriel, but not nearly as much as he would’ve done if it was the other way around. “They got in through the Sanctuary, which—”

“Let me guess, also shouldn’t have been able to happen?” Lewis buts in. He’s wearing ill-fitting jeans and one of the tees that, in his own universe, Jace had ripped from his closet to give to to a shelter for homeless youth. Coupled with the specs that in no way do anything for the shape of his face, Jace is past positive that in this universe, Lewis and he never learned how to share Clary. There’s no other excuse he’s willing to entertain for why his other self would let him wear a t-shirt that proclaims ‘I don’t age, I just level up!’ near actual people.

“How are _you_ here?” His voice, but not his voice. Jace expects to see his other self staring him down, but it’s directed instead at this other Lewis.

Jace himself flips his Seraph blade in his hands, holsters it and unsheathes his sword from where it rests on his back. Izzy’s word that they’re safe with these people, these opposite numbers, plays against the knowledge that so far, there’s only one Isabelle here, and he’s sure now that this Alec isn’t his.

This other Lewis who snorts unattractively, and gestures between him and Jace himself. “You’re one to talk!” 

“Simon is right.” Not-Alec says, sounding not a little disturbed by that himself at that statement. “The universes interacting like this have to be having an inverse effect on the sacred wards around the Institute. Izzy…”

“I’m on it, big brother.” Her whip now coiled snugly around her waist, she strides off without a glance at Simon, though to Jace himself she shoots a furtive look. Jace’s eyes skim over her bare skin for a match to the Parabatai Rune that this Alec has, and come up empty. It’s not Isabelle. He doesn’t want to check the skin of his other self.

“Someone should tell me where my Lightwoods are.” Jace doesn’t say more than that. The coolness of his tone and languid way he’s going through cool-down exercises with his sword speak for themselves. 

“Infirmary.” 

Jace’s only acknowledgment of his other self’s admission is to break into a sprint.

———————————

“I’m fine.” Alec says patiently, talking to both him and Actual Izzy, but looking at Jace. It had felt _good_ to set eyes on Alec again, to see Alec visibly relax and regain that air of peacefulness that came to him when they’d come together after being apart. “It wasn’t even a Greater Demon’s venom. Magnus already healed me.”

In the corner of his vision, Jace is aware of Bane’s male opposite wiggling his fingers in a wave that makes blue sparks trail from his fingertips. “For which you’re very welcome, Alexander. Though you do need to stop making a habit of that, in _any_ universe.” 

Alec gives the High Warlock a small smile, warm in the way only Alec can be warm. “Thanks, Magnus.”

“Yes, thanks Not-Magna.” Jace says dismissively, and moves to sit down on the bed next to Alec, so their thighs are pressed together. He takes out his stele and then he’s tracing the beginnings of an ‘equilibrium’ Rune on Alec’s shooting arm, to be completed when he needs it. He rarely applies his Runes himself—preferring to rely on Clary or Alec—but he has a weakness for being the one to draw them on Alec. “You can go now.”

“ _Jace._ ” Alec says, and there it is, the exasperation twined through with admonishment, underpinned by the echo of fondness that Not-Alec had been missing, “He healed me when he didn’t have to. Be less ungrateful.” 

And because this is Alec, and Jace will be damned if he lets him look weak in front of anyone, he lifts his eyes up to look at Not-Magna and says, with a serious amount of sincerity, “Thank you.” 

Jace doesn’t miss the look of surprise on the distinctively less attractive man’s face, nor the way he murmurs to himself, “Now that I didn’t expect.” No, he doesn’t miss it. He just doesn’t _care_. 

Alec is smiling at him now, and it’s not the small smile he gave away to Bane, but the wondrous-eyed one that is reserved only for Jace. They don’t kiss or touch overtly in public, not unless Alec initiates it, so Jace has become a virtuoso in tracing his eyes over Alec’s mouth, jaw, eyelashes.

“Sickening, isn’t it?” Isabelle says, and to someone who didn’t know her better, she would sound just annoyed, the immense love she has for her eldest brother going unnoticed and unremarked upon. “I never knew eye-making-love was a thing until my brother found this one.”

Alec looks absolutely mortified. “ _Isabelle_.”

There’s several reasons Jace counts her as more than Alec’s sister and Simon’s girlfriend; one of them is obviously that she’s a excellent Shadowhunter, another being how much she cares about Alec. The final one is how completely unrepentant she is in the face of everything, same as Jace himself. 

“And if it weren’t for me you’d never know the benefits of dating Lewis, either.” Even with Not-Magna there, he thinks about putting his arm around Alec’s shoulders, but with the rosy flush on Alec’s face he instead does the opposite and gets off the bed, slipping Ris’s cell out of his pocket with the vague appearance of boredom. “Left to his own devices he dresses like the person he really is: someone who jerks off to his own Guardians of the Galaxy fanfic.” 

There’s a burst of laugh, bright and surprised. All three Shadowhunters look over at Bane, who flicks a hand at the all behind a smile, no blue sparks this time, “A better assessment of Sherwin’s character I’ve never heard. I was wrong about you, Jace Whatever-Your-Surname-Is-This-Week, you _are_ a good match for this Alexander.”

Jace raises his eyebrows, aware that Isabelle, just as much as himself, is coiled on the defensive in case this Bane’s reasoning is in the least disparaging towards Alec. “Because I would hands down win every season of ‘Style My Geek BFF?’”

“Because you sincerely respect his wishes.” Not-Magna says simply. Why even this Bane is invested in his and Alec’s relationship after knowing Alec for all of a day, he doesn’t even question. Magna and Alec are close friends in their own universe, and Alec is _Alec_. It’s more than reasonable that some of that same affection would carry over. “And, of course, because if I’m going to identify as a woman in your universe while our Alexander is still very much homosexual, you’ll have to do.” He whirls out of the room, but not before tipping a wink at Alec, who doesn’t look nearly surprised as Jace would hope he would be.

“ _Our_ Alexander?” Jace says. Now that it’s just him and the Lightwoods, he gives up all pretense and waltzes back to the bed, pressing himself comfortably up against Alec’s side. He does, however, like to remain some semblance of not being completely wrapped around Alec’s fingers, so trails his finger across Clary’s phone in the unlocking pattern. He owes her a text.

“I like him for other Alec.” Isabelle says, apropos of nothing. “His eyeliner game is on point, and he’s not dating his sister.”

Jace has an active dislike of looking surprised too often, but the news that he’s dating Izzy in this universe makes it unavoidable this time around. From a hook up standpoint he can see where other Jace is coming from - Izzy, in Lewis’s word, is a ‘certified badass whose thighs could choke a Bond girl’—but _dating_? Even without Alec being around to draw focus, Jace just can’t see it. “How did that happen?”

“Incest is apparently just a minor problem to overcome here.” Alec says sourly. He’s not sunk into Jace, like happens when he’s relaxed enough, but he’s letting his hand rest on Jace’s knee. He’s scowling, which is familiar, even if his words make a sickening kind of sense.

Jace pulls his favored trick of looking mildly interested. It stops him from sharpening his Seraph blades and considering the pulses in people’s throats. “Come again?” 

Alec looks mildly guilty, like he’s realize what he’s said and to who. He reaches for him, and Jace casually gets up off the bed, so Alec’s hand falls away. 

Izzy picks up where he left off. “This universe’s Jace is dating this universe’s Clary. Alec told Clary you’re sibs in our universe, Clary said ‘hey, us too’ and now Alec is sulking over that rather than how we’re going to get back home. Oh, and he has a Parabatai here, so he’s sore about that too.” 

“I’m not _sulking_.” Alec insists, and Jace is accustomed enough to the pitch and fall of Alec’s voice to notice that he’s legitimately not using his sulking voice, even through the white roar of coldness that began to settle over him when ‘incest’ was mentioned in the same sentence as Ris. “It’s disturbing, adopted sib— Jace? Jace!” 

Jace doesn’t hesitate. Even when Alec lunges for him, bodily trying to stop him from doing what needs to be done, Jace doesn’t think twice about ducking out of his boyfriend’s grasp and running out of the infirmary even quicker than he’d run towards it. Alec will be slowed down by healing from the demon venom, and Izzy won’t understand what he intends to do until it’s too late. 

The hastily scribbled ‘locking’ Rune will only hold them for so long because it’s one of Ris’s super-powered Runes. It needs to be long enough. In his own universe, his sister had to deal with their brother trying to force himself on her own. Jace isn’t going to let the same thing happen in this universe, especially if the brother who is doing it this time is a version of himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4 things.
> 
> 1) I hope this chapter makes things make SLIGHTLY more sense? If not, roll on chapter 3.
> 
> 2) There is a chapter 3 now, because between loving on Alec and getting completely the wrong idea re: Canon Clace, Jace was in no mind to give me word count space to get them home. Also, chapter 3 is AU Clary's POV, bc she insisted she needed a chapter, and Clary Fray is not a girl you really say 'Idts' to.
> 
> 3) This Jalec is based off the theory that, if Jace had been raised with spitfire Clary and fellow snark machine Simon, and then met Alec much later, he would develop a fascination/appreciation for Alec's general Alecness in a similar way to how Canon Jace did Clary. Which in itself is inspired by this quote from Modern Family: 'We choose our partners because they represent the unfinished business from our childhood. And we choose them because they manifest the qualities we wish we had.'
> 
> 4) I'm NaNoing right now so if stuff doesn't make sense, that's probs why.


	3. AU Clary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well, yeah.” This other Simon says, clearly trying to not get side-tracked by an other version of himself being _right there_. “But I thought it was just more ‘My dad is your dad but not really my dad’ drama, not actual ‘The name is Fray, Jace Fray’ territory.”

**AU CLARY**

Where her brother is concerned, Clary is completely comfortable being one of those assholes who don’t turn their cell to silent when at the movies. That’s easily triply true when she’s in an alternative universe (When they get home, she _has_ to five star the hell out of her cell phone provider).

“Uptown girl, you know I can’t afford to buy her pearls…” 

Simon lunges for his cell, but it’s in Clary’s own pocket, so all she has to do is press ‘accept’ and put it up against her ear to win that battle. “Hi, Iz, it’s Ris.” It’s not the Shadowhunter’s voice she _wants_ to be on the other end of this call, but she’ll—

“You have to Portal to the Institute now.” The gasp of Izzy’s voice, the rapid click-click of her heels running on stone, makes Clary cold. She only realizes she’s stood up when the guy behind her complains. “Jace is going nuclear. Alec thinks it’s because the Jace here is dating the Clary here.”

Clary feels her breathe get knocked out of her, as solidly as if she’d been shoved. She knows what Jace must be thinking. She’s just as certain that what he’s thinking can’t be right.

“We’re coming.” She ends the call and reaches for Simon, who is already standing up next to her, not even complaining. 

“Bathroom?”

It’s as good a place to make a Portal as any.

———————————

(She’s become adept at Portals. After her mom died, they became something to focus on, something wild and unknowable to wrestle into something that made sense. With Magna helping her, it became less dangerous. Or maybe Magna just made it so that Clary was more aware of the dangers.

Like the new Rune that blazes into her mind—doubled over on itself, like a mirror reflecting another mirror—as she’s creating a Portal to this world’s Institute. ‘Oh,’ Clary thinks, the knowledge of the way home settling over her like it’s always been there. Immediately, she banishes the image of the new Rune. She can’t take her and Simon home without her brother and the Lightwoods. 

Clary raises her chin, stubbornly painting the memories of her own world over with imaginings of a New York Institute occupied by two versions of her brother, of Alec, of Izzy. 

She steps through the Portal).

———————————

She sees Jace first, and she sees Jace second. Both of them are bleeding and vibrating with adrenaline. Both of them are staring at her with varying degrees of surprise. “Jason Stephen Fray, what are you _doing_.”

The Jace who seems less injured mutters “Fray” like he’s never heard the word before, so she marches towards the other one and slaps him smartly across the face.

“Ris! What was that—”

“You’re not Jonathan.” She interrupts him, staring at her brother with blazing eyes, “In no universe could you be Jonathan.”

“Well, technically…” Two voices that are both equally _Simon_ start at once, and she glares at one of them hard enough that both of their jaws click shut.

“Why would he be Jonathan?” Alec demands, and Clary knows from that question alone it’s not the Alec she knows speaking. “Why did he attack Jace?”

A cough, and then this universe’s Simon is raising his hand in the air, like they’re back in Mrs. Scott’s class, and that was the only way to get heard. “I’d actually like to second all those questions. And here’s another one to make us three for three: Why did you call him Fray?”

Her own Alec— _Jace’s_ own Alec—is lifting his eyes heavenward with such an expression of frustration that Clary knows, instantly, that whatever this is, they’ve already been over it. “I _told_ your Clary that they were brother and sister in my universe. Did she not tell you that?” _When she tells you everything else?_ hung thick in the air between them all.

“Well, yeah.” This other Simon says, clearly trying to not get side-tracked by an other version of himself being _right there_. “But I thought it was just more ‘My dad is your dad but not really my dad’ drama, not actual ‘The name is Fray, Jace Fray’ territory.”

There’s a short pause before Clary’s own Simon busts in, talking to Clary herself, “I make more sense than _that_ , right?” 

“No.” Jace’s Alec says simply.

“No, but you do dress better.” Is Izzy’s contribution. There’s only one her, and from the way she’s standing guard between her brother and Clary’s, as well as the way she’s looking at Simon, Clary thinks it’s the one from her own universe. She realizes the cute midnight blue jacket she’s wearing is the one she herself helped Iz pick out, which only confirms it.

“Where am I?” Clary asks, before the Simons can start arguing with each other. 

“Clary thought she was making Alec uncomfortable.” The other Jace that—isn’t her brother—says. She meets his eyes, and sees a look there that’s foreign to her. No, not entirely foreign. If she struggles through the sap that clouds her earlier memories, she can remember that look. Not just on Jace’s face, but on her own, too. “She wanted to give him some space.”

“And she was having visions of a new Rune.” Clary says. It’s a guess, but she thinks it’s a well-founded one. She can’t imagine another version of herself leaving a situation like this just to give someone space, even if it is Alec. But if she wanted some breathing room to sketch out a potential new Rune… 

A look flits across this other Jace’s face, and she knows she’s right. She turns to this other version of Simon, “Call her. I know how to get us home, but it’s going to take both of us.”

“Explanations first.” Alec says grimly, and Clary isn’t the least surprised that the words are echoed only half a second later from the other version of him.

“And then Suicide Squad.” Her own Simon says and Clary nods, because they were good to get this far without a mention.

———————————

“But those rewrites make NO sense! Why wouldn’t they just recast Flagg?”

“Because Hollywood. Wait, did Patty Jenkins get her cut of Wonder Woman here?” 

A sharp intake of breathe. “ _Your universe has Wonder Woman?_ Clary! Clary, did you hear that? They have Wonder Woman! With a kickass female director! Say goodbye to Jace now, we’re going with them.”

Rissa sits down next to herself, one leg tucked under the other, and exchanges a friendly eyeroll with her. “I think two Simons in the same room was a bigger mistake than two Jaces.”

Her other self grins back at her, and the two of them split an egg roll. “Maybe. Although watching them fight was kind of hot.”

Rissa wrinkles her nose. They’ve gone through the history of Jace Wayland-Morgernstern-Herondale-Lightwood and this universe’s Clary Fray thoroughly enough that no one from her side can cry ‘incest’. But hearing someone who is essentially _her_ finding Jace hot is still weird. Or, as Lewis put it ‘like a mindfuck and a whatthehell had a threesome with Harley Quinn and this universe is their ot3 baby’. 

A likening that had made Alexander demand to know why _their_ universe was the crazy one, which had spiraled out into reams of tangents that, aside apart from a discussion about the Mark of Cain, mostly seemed to entail the Simons arguing about pop culture, and the Izzys’ finding new ways to argue-without-arguing about Simon. The second Izzy having appeared not long before this universe’s Clary did, briskly telling them the wards situation was ‘handled’, that Alexander owed her a new pair of boots for making her be the one to go to that part of the Institute, and then eyeing up the new Simon far too much for Rissa’s own Izzy’s liking. 

It’s complicated situation all around, helped only marginally by Rissa saying ‘call me Rissa’, her Simon claiming ‘Lewis’ and the other universe’s Alec deciding swiftly on ‘Alexander’. Neither Jace or Izzy would agree to simplify things by picking one nickname between them, to the surprise of no one less than Alec, whose drawn out sigh seemed to be intended equally for all of them.

Rissa looks over to Alec now, wondering how he’s dealing with the revelation that Alexander and Jace’s counterpart had been raised—and thought of each other—as brothers. If he’s going to let it get to his and Jace’s relationship.

“How are you a Fray?” Jace’s voice cuts through the rest of the chatter, his eyes trained hard on Rissa’s brother. The fight between the two boys hadn’t gotten far along before Rissa could put a stop to it, but Rissa doesn’t think this Jace is anymore into ‘forgive and forget’ than her own.

“Jocelyn raised me as one.” There’s a beat, the increasing possibility that that’s all her Jace is going to leave him with, but the other Jace doesn’t waver, and Ris is struck by the thought that Jace may just have some of the same defense mechanisms in both universes. It would be funny, if Jace was preparing to talk about anything but their childhood. “Valentine had papers signed by my birth mother that said guardianship of me passed to him, if anything happened to her and Stephen. Which he helpfully moved along by murdering them both.” 

From what they’ve heard from other Jace, Rissa knows that Valentine killing the Herondales holds true in both universe. But the other Jace’s face shows a curious blankness of expression, and he only nods for Jace to go on; Rissa isn’t surprised at the way the other Lightwoods seem to be standing guard over him, or that Clary moves over to sit closer to him.

Risa is up on her own feet to go sit with her brother. It’s something of a snug fit, as Alec gravitates to stand at Jace’s back, hand carefully touching Jace’s back while Lewis, with every appearance of casualness, plonks down on the seat next to him and throws his legs across their Jace’s lap. “As origin stories go there’s a distinct DC feel to it.” He tags in, “A little Jason Todd, a lot Dick Grayson…” 

“You’re not the Batman in this partnership.” Jace drawls, and throws his arm out around Rissa’s own shoulder. She tucks her head against his shoulder, knowing that her brother is tactile, and Alec isn’t comfortable yet with PDA. “Aquaman, maybe.”

“Don’t make this ugly, Fray. Your crazy acrobatic skills are completely Dick Grayson!” 

“Jace is Jace, and you’re you.” Alec says dryly, and there’s a brush of fingers against Rissa’s hair that makes Rissa think Alec’s using her head resting where it is as cover to touch the nape of Jace’s neck. “There’s enough identify confusion here without adding in cartoon characters.”

“Not just cartoon characters, Alec. Have you—”

“Valentine took me with him after the Uprising.” Jace cuts him off, relaxing a little in a way that Rissa knows is because of all three of them. “He took Jonathan, too, and my mom went with him—Jocelyn, not Celine.”

“My mom wouldn’t go with him willingly.” Clary objects, and it’s bizarre to see the way her own eyes flash when she’s angry and righteous. “She had a Potion that would put her into a magically induced coma, she would’ve taken that rather than be with him.”

Rissa pulls herself away from Jace so she can stare herself down, equally angry, even more righteous. Fierce in defense of not just her mom, but her brother, too. “Valentine had _Jace_. She couldn’t put herself into a coma when she had Jace to think about.”

“And she was pregnant with Ris.” Jace says, tightening his arm around her into half-a hug. Rissa grabs for Jace’s hand. She’s not going to let anyone make Jace doubt their mom loved him any less for not being her flesh and blood son. “And he knew she was pregnant.”

“He _knew_?”

“He knew.” Rissa tells herself. “And he wanted all of us. He made her drink even more of Ithuriel’s blood.”

“So you and Clary—Ris, you and Rissa, were… _both_ raised by Valentine?” Simon says, horrified. Rissa meets his eyes, sees him searching for a sign that she’s not just the Clary he doesn’t know, but not really Clary at all.

“And Jonathan.” Jace says it quietly, but still the other Jace, the other Clary, both stiffen. 

“You were raised with _him_?” Isabelle, the other Isabelle, snarls. Her eyes are burning, and she’s standing up, like Jonathan is there now, for her to attack. Rissa watches Alexander step closer to her, murmuring something meant just for her, and Rissa is sure that they’re missing a hefty chunk of the puzzle, a piece of information that would explain why Izzy is incensed more over Jonathan than she is Valentine. 

“On and off.” Jace says, with a casualness that Rissa well knows is forced. Even with the memory work that’s been done on their earliest memories, it’s not easy for either of them to talk about. “He had places that he’d move us between. He used to pit us against each other, sometimes in duels or training, a lot of the time it was emotional manipulation, psychological torture… normal family stuff.”

“Mom did what she could to protect us.” Rissa says determinedly, before _anyone_ can suggest Jocelyn did anything else for them than her all. “And when I was five, she got us anyway from him.”

“How?” Rissa thought it would’ve been Jace who asked, or Clary. It’s neither of them. Jace is staring at his own hands, and Clary is holding hands with Simon when Alexander repeats himself, “How did she get three children away from Valentine by herself? Why was no one looking for any of you in the first place? Why does Jace not fight like he’s been a Shadowhunter all his life if this was his childhood?”

“Spoilers.” For a moment, Rissa thinks she’s imagining their friend’s voice—and then there’s a ripple of movement in the air in the middle of them all, and Magna is just _there_. Turning around in a circle to take them all in, entirely unconcerned at the weapons levelled at her by almost half the room. “I wouldn’t bother. Unlike some people I can see, I’m not _actually_ here.”

“Mag—nus?” Alexander says uncertainly, staring at the Warlock as if he might go towards her. 

Even though she and Jace have technically known Magna longer, Alec and her had quickly become the closest; her smile when she looks at him is infinitely fond. “Hello, darling. Wish that I were here to meet you, but…” She winds her fingers through the air, her gaze landing first on Alec, then on Clary, and finally on Rissa herself. “Time to bring them home, biscuits. Tessa tells me you all being here will disturb both universes permanently if you keep chatting about your respective differences.”

“Seems like I was beaten to it.” Magnus says mildly, leaning up against the door he’d just come through, and considering his female opposite. “I just received a message from my Tessa saying much the same.” 

Rissa hadn’t realized Magna was straining, until she relaxes at the sight of her male opposite. “I can trust you to make sure I get my Nephilim back very much ASAP?” 

Magnus tips his head in a small nod, his cat-eyes trained on Magna’s own. It seems to be enough for Magna, as she disappears with a blown kiss to Alexander and Alec both.

“She couldn’t stay any longer?” Alexander asks.

“It’s not easy, projecting a simulacrum to another universe.” Magnus says, “Harder than coming here in person, actually, but much easier on the universes. I imagine if she’d come here in full, both Tessas would have quite an interdimensional crack to contend with.”

“Are we going to do that?” Both Alecs ask at almost the sound time, alarmed.

Rissa listens enough to hear Magnus assure both Alecs that Shadowhunters won’t break the universe in quite the same way a centuries old Warlock would, and then sets her head back on Jace’s shoulder. “Okay, J?” 

When she angles her head to look up at her brother, he’s staring at Magnus, who is talking quietly with Alexander. Or it might be Alec. Of everyone, they’re the only two selves who are dressed exactly the same, and neither of them are where they were before, with the other Alec hugging Rissa’s own Izzy. “Are we only together because Magna isn’t a guy?” 

“No.” Lewis, the eternal eavesdropper that he is (or isn’t, really—it’d been the three of them against the world for a _long_ time). “You and Clary being brother and sister has something to do with it too.”

Rissa isn’t close enough to punch him, but Clary must have heard what he said, as she gives him a small whack to the shoulder. In perfect unison, they say: “Shut up, Lewis.” 

It has the effect Rissa had been hoping for—making Jace relax, albeit a little forcibly, into a chuckle. Rissa grins at herself, and together, they go in for a hug. “Jace and Alec?” Clary whispers into her ear, and Rissa nods.

When they pull away, she sees Clary grinning even wider than before, “I know that’s your brother and my alternative boyfriend and _Alec_ but, _hot_ , am I right?” 

Rissa punches her own shoulder, but she’s smiling, too. “You’ve been reading too much slash fanfic.”

“Haven’t you?” Clary asks.

“Castiel Dean OTP!” They say together, and laugh together, too. Rissa wonders if this is what it would’ve been like to have a twin sister, and from the look on Clary’s face, she thinks she’s wondering the same. This Clary would’ve been raised as an only child, by all appearances.

Clary opens her mouth, and Rissa just _knows_ it’s going to be about Jonathan, so Rissa says the first thing that comes to mind, “You must be secure in your relationship. You and your Jace.” And though she has literal _no_ interest in her own Jace (gross, on so many levels), she is curious about what it’s like, to be in a long-term, loving relationship. With another Shadowhunter, at that.

“I am.” Clary says with confidence. Rissa knows herself, and she knows she means it. “Jace…”

“Struggles sometimes?” Rissa prompts, and Clary nods.

“He’s not as—”

“—Confident as he comes off.” 

“Biscuits.” Magnus says gently, laying a hand on the small of each of their backs. “Time to go.”

Rissa looks up at him (he’s even taller than Magna, and that’s no easy feat). “How did you know I’d thought of a new Rune to get us home? Either of you?” 

“You didn’t before.” Clary points out.

The look Magnus gives them both is—ironic, almost. “I believe my fabulous other self put it perfectly: Spoilers.”

———————————

It takes two of them to draw the Rune. Rissa has to draw the one half and Clary the other, identical half. It’s big, too. Easily the biggest Rune Rissa has ever done.

“Wait, I still don’t understand—why aren’t you and Jace Parabatai?” 

Rissa keeps determinedly drawing her half of the Rune. She knows without looking that Clary is, too.

“Alexander.” She hears Magnus say, cautious in a way Rissa doesn’t think she’s heard even from Magna, “More intra-universe information exchange is… ill-advisable. _Very_ ill-advisable.”

An impatient noise, “Magnus, you’re just going to erase our memories of all of this anyway.”

Rissa doesn’t pause in drawing out the long, long loop of the Dimensional Travel Rune, but she does have to call to Clary, to make sure she doesn’t either. Rissa thinks this is one difference between the two of them: Clary didn’t instinctively realise each of their Warlocks would have to change their memory of this. 

“Alexander.” Magnus’s voice is exasperated, and Rissa knows even before one of the Izzys and _both_ Simons start to object, that he was hoping to keep that revelation secret a little longer. 

She finishes off her side of the Rune a split-second before Clary does, and the Portal blooms between them. Unlike an ordinary Portal, it shimmers in a way that is reflective. She doesn’t have to turn around to see everyone else behind her, which works out _really_ well, as she doesn’t want to turn away from this Portal in a hurry. The way reality floats away from itself in bubbles, and then coalesces… how could she even begin to paint that?

“He’s right.” Three voices say it at once; Alec, and both Jaces. Rissa looks not at them, but their reflections in the Portal; both Jaces look surprised that the other’s agreeing with them, and Rissa wonders if they were agreeing about the same thing.

“Well, I’m not waiting around here, even for this. Everyone should be back from the Idris trip by now.” An Izzy declares, flipping her hair away from her shoulder and striding towards the Portal. She pauses by it, and looks annoyed, “ _Simon._ ” 

“Right.” Lewis says, a little distracted, and gives a quick hug to Clary and a fistbump to Rissa before he steps through the Portal with her. 

“Why _aren’t_ you Parabatai?” The other Jace asks, and Rissa looks to his reflection in the Portal. That cold-distrustful look is back again.

“Why aren’t _you_ more concerned that Ris is holding open an inter-dimensional Portal all on her own?” Her own Jace says, and Rissa doesn’t have to look at his reflection to know he’s got on what Lewis calls the ‘Fierce Fray’ look.

“Clary can handle it.”

Rissa trades a look with herself; she never realized how often her face takes on a wry expression until all of this.

“Jace, it’s fine.” Alec says, reaching out to grip Jace’s shoulder.

“You don’t have to justify yourself to them, or to anyone.” Their Jace argues, his eyes only for Alec. The shimmer of Portal Rissa is watching them in ripples off, so they’re in a bubble of their own. “Even if it’s you or some asshole version of me asking you to.”

“Alec shouldn’t be made uncomfortable.” Izzy says firmly. “ _Any_ Alec.” 

“Uh, guys.” Simon says.

“I agree with Izzy, Jace.” Alexander says, somewhat reluctantly. “If they don’t want to tell us, they shouldn’t have to.”

“You don’t think it’s suspicious?” The other Jace persists. “You don’t think—”

Another impatient noise, this time from Alec, who grabs his Jace by both shoulders and hauls him in for a kiss. 

Rissa looks away, biting back a smile, and catches a glimpse of Clary watching them with huge eyes. She sneaks glances at Alexander, at Simon, at other Jace, all of whom seem to be caught in various stages of being utterly stunned. The only ones who seem unsurprised are Magnus, and Izzy, who looks as if it’s nothing she’s not seen a hundred times before. 

Rissa doesn’t know which of them coughs, only that it has to happen at least twice before Jace loosens his hold on Alec’s waist, and Alec eases his mouth from Jace’s. They’re still staring at each other when Simon coughs so loudly it sounds like he’s hacking up a lung.

“That’s mind-blowing and all, but that—” He points at Izzy, who responds only with an arched eyebrow. “Is not my Isabelle.”

Rissa’s stomach drops.

Alec stumbles back from Jace, staring at his sister in some horror. “ _Isabelle_?” 

Isabelle—who is not wearing the same jacket she was earlier, but the same boots, the same top, the same _everything else_ —raises her chin, entirely unrepentant. “Max is _dead_ in this universe, Alec. I had to let her talk to our Max, at least one more time.”

A spasm goes through one Alec, as the other steps forward to Izzy, face as white as canvas.

“Max is _dead_?”

“Max is _alive_?”

“Lightwoods.” Magnus sighs, sounding like he wishes he could only be surprised. “If I’m not madly in love with them, they’re just too much trouble.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd THAT'S A WRAP. Kind of. 
> 
> I'm currently working on another fic in the AU Jalec universe, which I'm officially calling **The Sleeping Sanguinary AU**. **'I just came to say hello'** acts as a weirdass prologue to that universe, although the fic I'm writing now won't have any universe-crossing, and is set chronologically earlier. I made this fic part one of the series, so if you want to get updates to just my AU Jalec, you can subscribe to **The Sleeping Sanguinary** :)
> 
> IDK yet if I'm going to do a direct sequel to this that deals with Canon Isabelle vs emotional times with AU Max. If I do, it'll probably be after NaNo, when I have the time to re-read over Isabelle/Max feels and do it properly. I'll also put it as part of the **The Sleeping Sanguinary AU** series anyway.
> 
> I hope you liked this okay! I intentionally set out to answer some questions y'all might have, side-step others, and bring up new ones. Because that's how I roll. Some things will be answered next fic around! Others won't. Because it's no fun if you do it all at once :)
> 
> OH and I realised that I accidentally set this in current time, instead of the early '00s... and I'm just gonna roll with it. #kayneshrug
> 
> x James


End file.
